Wall Street slightly lower ahead of private jobs data

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures pointed to lower opening on Wednesday after two days of record highs, as investors braced for three days of major economic data and the launch of the quarterly earnings season.

* World stocks hit a fresh record high on Wednesday, aided by strong September U.S. car sales data and the Chinese central bank’s weekend move to free up liquidity boosted mainland financial stocks.

* The three major U.S. indexes hit record high levels for the second-straight day on Tuesday, buoyed by gains in airlines and carmakers.

* The dollar .DXY was off seven-week highs on speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice for the next head of the Federal Reserve could be a less hawkish candidate than had previously been expected.

* Oil prices fell, pulled down by caution that a rally that lasted for most of the third quarter would not extend through the last three months of the year. [O/R]

* U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to address the Community Banking in the 21st Century Research and Policy Conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

* The rest of the week is loaded with heavy economic data, culminating in Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for September.

* Among economic data scheduled for the day include the Institute for Supply Management’s reading on national nonmanufacturing. The reading, expected at 10:00 a.m ET (1400GMT), is seen to be little changed at 55.5 for September.

* The ADP National Employment Report for September is likely to show a drop in hiring by U.S. private-sector employers to 125,000 jobs, compared with 237,000 jobs in August. Data is expected at 8:15 a.m. ET (1215 GMT).

* Amazon (AMZN.O) shares were lower after the European Union ordered the world’s largest online retailer to pay back about 250 million euros ($294 million) in taxes to Luxembourg, saying it was given an unfair tax advantage from 2003.